High Productivity Freight Networks

Productive and reliable road freight corridors are fundamental to the performance of high-productivity networks. In addition, enabling access for high productivity vehicles (HPVs) results in fewer truck movements, leading to lower emissions and lower operational costs.

Table 4 shows that in absolute terms, large increases in road freight are expected for Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth, which drives infrastructure demand in high-capacity corridors. The strongest projected absolute growth is in Melbourne, with an additional 8 billion tonne-kilometres projected by 2040, reflecting its role as a major freight hub.

Source: BITRE Yearbook 2025 Table 1.5, BITRE Road Freight Forecasts 2022 Table 3.1. Highlighted cells indicate values that are above the average for their respective column.

High percentage growth in smaller markets, such as Darwin (67%) and Hobart (38%), indicate emerging pressure points that require consideration to avoid infrastructure constraints or bottlenecks. Darwin records the highest percentage growth, which despite its smaller base, indicates significant relative growth in northern supply chains.

Regional and remote communities are particularly vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, which can severely impact productivity and access to essential goods and services. The 2023 Road and Rail Supply Chain Resilience Review identified KFRs that are critical for both carrying large volumes of freight and also for serving remote communities. Disruptions to these corridors can delay or prevent delivery of basic commodities and perishable items, creating significant risks to community wellbeing.

The increasing prevalence of natural disasters due to climate change threatens the availability of essential goods and services in remote and regional communities, particularly in central and northern Australia where flooding is frequent. Remote First Nations communities are disproportionately impacted by supply chain disruptions, which pose a significant risk to the wellbeing of these communities.¹² In many locations, aviation provides the only reliable year-round access. The Australian Government’s Regional Aviation Access Program supports aviation services that are important for the social and economic wellbeing of remote communities. The Infrastructure Policy Statement notes the Australian Government will continue to support nationally significant projects in regional Australia that support connectivity between our regions, communities and major gateways. 

Australia’s growing demand for road freight requires investment focussed on improving corridor efficiency and access for HPVs to keep goods moving reliably and support economic growth.  

The development and upgrade of HPV networks on Key Freight Routes is an infrastructure priority for Australia over the next 10 years. The 2026 Infrastructure Priority List includes two program proposals in South Australia and Victoria as future investment opportunities in the 2-4 year pipeline that support HPV network improvements. These proposals represent a snapshot of broader national investment priorities, with HPV network improvements across all jurisdictions leading to a more resilient, high-capacity freight network.

The South Australian High Productivity Vehicle Network – Future stages proposal identifies solutions to improve freight efficiency and strengthen network resilience, while the Enabling infrastructure for zero emissions and high productivity freight vehicles in Victoria proposal supports improved efficiency and reliability of KFRs and emissions reduction in Victoria. A further listing looking to improve access for HPVs on key freight routes is the Hume Highway (Sheahan Bridge) upgrade proposal, which is on the busiest freight corridor in New South Wales and is a key constraint preventing more efficient HPV movements between Melbourne and Sydney. This proposal is also identified as a future investment opportunity in the 2-4 year pipeline.

Improving the capacity of nationally significant transport corridors is an ongoing priority for Australia to support national freight productivity and connectivity. The 2026 Infrastructure Priority List identifies both the Bruce Highway upgrade in Queensland and the Burnie to Hobart freight corridor improvements in Tasmania, as proposals for further capacity, efficiency and connectivity improvements on key corridors that are part of the NLTN. Both proposals are identified as priorities for future investment in the 2-4 year pipeline.

Infrastructure to safeguard critical supply chains for regional and remote communities is a national priority to ensure reliable access to essential goods and services. The 2026 Infrastructure Priority List includes the Road access improvements for remote Western Australia communities as an immediate priority for planning investment to consider options to address unreliable road access.

The 2023 Road and Rail Supply Chain Resilience Review assessed 52 critical road supply chains from National Key Freight Routes (KFRs) to develop a better understanding of Australia’s road resilience. These routes connect nationally significant freight hubs – ports, airports and intermodal terminals – and comprise a key part of Australia’s supply chain infrastructure. Eight critical road KFRs were determined to have a high or very high vulnerability rating.

Table 5 shows high vulnerability ratings clustered across northern and western Australia, where long distances and climate exposure amplify disruption risks. Storms, flooding and heat are the dominant hazard drivers, directly affecting reliability for key export commodities including mining, agriculture and construction materials. Addressing these vulnerabilities will improve national supply-chain reliability and protect regional productivity.

Source: Road and Rail Supply Chain Resilience Review – Phase 1

As shown in Table 5, the Northern Territory contains six of the eight most vulnerable road freight corridors, highlighting a need for targeted investment to enhance both safety and network resilience. The Australian Government has committed delivery funding towards the progressive upgrade of several of these key freight routes, including $630.7 million within the Regional Roads Corridor investment program. This funding supports major works on both the Arnhem Highway and Central Arnhem Road to improve connectivity and reliability for remote communities and industries.

The Industry Roads Corridor program includes a commitment of $518.5 million to support staged upgrades to the Carpentaria Highway to enhance freight capacity and safety. A further $779.3 million has been allocated to the Stuart, Victoria and Barkly Highways Corridor program, delivering improvements focussed on flood immunity, road safety, and increased freight efficiency across northern and central Australia. 

These commitments support progressive upgrades to strengthen the resilience of the Northern Territory’s key freight routes. However, further investment is likely to be required across corridors such as the Buchanan and Lasseter Highways, as well as remaining unfunded sections of other KFRs, to ensure ongoing improvements to resilience and connectivity across the vulnerable Northern Territory key freight routes. These upgrades to KFRs also play a critical role in supporting industry development across the mining, agricultural, energy and gas sectors by improving the efficiency, safety and reliability of transport connections essential to their operations.

Additionally, there is one highly vulnerable KFR in Queensland – the Gregory Development Road, the southern portion of this KFR is part of the Inland Freight Route – Mungindi to Charters Towers. The Inland Freight Route is an alternative to the Bruce Highway and is supported by an $800 million commitment from the Australian Government to deliver road upgrades to improve connectivity and safety for road users. Early works are underway for this program.

The Infrastructure Policy Statement emphasises the need for targeted investment to improve the resilience of critical road corridors. Disruptions to Australia’s freight network highlight the importance of efficient and resilient supply chains. Infrastructure upgrades that reduce vulnerability to storms, flooding, heat and other hazards will ensure our critical road corridors remain reliable and accessible into the future, even in extreme conditions.

Alongside weather-related vulnerabilities, crashes are a source of disruption to key road corridors, with crash incidents making up 70% of unplanned road closures on the NLTN and KFRs between 2020 and 2024.²⁸ The Australian Government has committed $2.94 billion to the Road Safety Program to address road safety issues and crash hazards on key sections of the road network. The program approved almost 500 projects for delivery from 2023 to 2026 – the majority of which are in New South Wales. This aligns with Infrastructure Australia’s analysis of the National Freight Data Hub roadworks and road closures data, which shows that crash hazards as the main cause of unplanned road closures on the NLTN and KFRs in New South Wales.

The Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) provides a nationally consistent measure of road safety using the globally recognised International Road Assessment Program star rating system, where each additional star halves the risk of severe crashes. Results from the 2025 AusRAP assessment of over 71,000 km of road, including the NLTN, show that over 53% of assessed road length is rated 3-star or better. Table 6 shows the safety improvements across the different star ratings for the NLTN since the previous assessment in 2013, which shows a positive trend of improving road safety for the roads assessed by AusRAP within the NLTN.

Source: Australian Road Assessment Program Summary Report

The National Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030 sets a target that by 2030, at least 80% of travel (on national highways and the high-speed network) occurs on roads rated 3-star or better. Jurisdiction performance is highly variable, with Western Australia recording 82.3% of travel on 3-star or better rated roads, compared to the Northern Territory at only 27.7%.²⁹

As the 2025 AusRAP assessment covered only jurisdictions with available NLTN data, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania were not assessed, however the Bruce Highway in Queensland – part of the NLTN – remains a priority for further safety and capacity upgrades. The Bruce Highway Targeted Safety Program is supported by a $7.2 billion commitment from the Australian Government to deliver safety upgrades on priority sections of the Bruce Highway with higher than average crash rates, with the intention to bring the Bruce Highway to a minimum 3-star AusRAP safety rating.^30,31

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iii     No data available for the NLTN within Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania
 

Extreme weather, ageing infrastructure and crash rates threaten the resilience and safety of Australia’s road freight network. Investment priorities include upgrades to vulnerable corridors and enhanced safety measures to maintain freight reliability and protect national supply chains. The Australian Government continues to make significant investments to improve the safety and resilience of major road corridors.

Targeted resilience and safety upgrades to Key Freight Routes will be required over the next 10 years. The 2026 Infrastructure Priority List includes the Great Northern Highway improvements – Broome to Kununurra as an immediate priority for planning investment and the South Coast Highway improvements – Albany to Esperance proposal as a priority for future investment in the 2-4 year pipeline to address safety and resilience issues from regular weather-related road closures. In the 2023 Road and Rail Supply Chain Resilience Review, these corridors in Western Australia were assigned vulnerability ratings of medium and high, respectively.

The 2026 Infrastructure Priority List also identifies Northern Territory road safety and connectivity improvements as a future investment opportunity in the 2-4 year pipeline to address resilience, safety and connectivity issues on vulnerable KFR corridors. The Northern Territory recorded only 27.7% of travel on roads rated at 3-star or better (out of over 7,000 km of the sealed territory-controlled road network), which is the lowest level of travel for all jurisdictions assessed in the 2025 AusRAP.²⁹ The Northern Territory also contains six of the eight most vulnerable road freight corridors, highlighting a need for targeted investment to enhance both safety and network resilience. The Australian Government has committed funding for priority upgrades through road corridor funding programs, including Regional Roads, Industry Roads and Outback Way corridor programs.